1999/11/11 by J. J. Kavelaars, William E. Harris, W. E. Harris +4 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Camera for Surveys #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Coma (optics) #Coma Cluster #Distance modulus #Elliptical galaxy #Fornax Cluster #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Globular cluster #Hubble space telescope #Hubble's law #Physics #Redshift #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Velocity dispersion #Virgo Cluster #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/308642
19 pages (includes figures), users emulateapj, accepted by ApJ
arxiv created 1999/11/11 · openalex publication_date 2000/04/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We have used deep Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images in V (F606W) and I (F814W) to measure the luminosity distribution of the globular clusters in NGC 4874, the central cD galaxy of the Coma cluster. We find the "turnover" point of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) to lie at V = 27.88 ± 0.12, while the overall GCLF shape matches the standard Gaussian-like form with dispersion σ V = 1.49 ± 0.12. We use the GCLF as a standard candle by matching the turnover points in NGC 4874 and another Coma elliptical, IC 4051, with those of the giant ellipticals in the Virgo cluster (M87 and five others). The result is Δ( m - M ) (Coma-Virgo) = 4.06 ± 0.11 mag, which converts to a Coma distance d = 102 Mpc if the Virgo distance modulus is ( m - M ) 0 = 30.99 ± 0.04. The Hubble constant which emerges from our GCLF measurement is then H 0 = (69 ± 9) km s -1 Mpc -1 . We confirm this H 0 value with a novel presentation of the "Hubble diagram" for GCLFs in giant E galaxies. Measurements of additional GCLFs in the Coma ellipticals, as well as calibrating galaxies in Virgo and Fornax, have excellent potential to refine this result in the near future.